Inspired by Italy

The exhibition “Inspired by Italy” of the Gallery of Matica Srpska opens in the Gallery of the National Museum Kraljevo, as part of the Žiča Spirital Assembly “Transfiguration 2024” on Friday, August 16th, 2024, starting at 8 p.m. The exhibition will be opened by Snežana Mišić, PhD, museum advisor and Head of the Collections Department of the Gallery of Matica Srpska.

The exhibition “Inspired by Italy” is dedicated to Serbian-Italian cultural and artistic ties, that is, to Serbian artists who found role models and incentives for their creativity in the artistic tradition of Italy. The Italian “experiences” of Serbian artists during the 19th and 20th centuries are visually represented by the selection of works of art from the collection of the Gallery of Matica Srpska.

Serbian art of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, as well as earlier eras, was created in the spirit of the Byzantine artistic tradition, based on Orthodox spirituality, which is why today we can only partially and incompletely talk about Italian influences during those eras. Hints of the presence of elements of art created on the soil of the Apennine peninsula begin to be more clearly expressed in the works of Serbian artists of the 18th and 19th centuries. Historical and social changes, the migration of the Serbian population to the north of Europe and the area of the Habsburg Monarchy influenced the transformation of Serbian art. The Italophile atmosphere that reigned in the cultural and artistic circles of the peoples of European countries encouraged Serbian artists to study the historical-artistic heritage of Italy.

Along with copies of paintings based on the works of Italian masters of painting Parmigianino, Guido Reni and Pompeo Batoni, the exhibition also includes paintings and drawings depicting the cities, people and heritage of Italy, as well as graphic sheets by foreign artists based on the works of Raphael, Titian, Anibal Caracci. Over 30 works of art by artists such as Novak Radonić, Aksentije Marodić, Jeftimij Popović, Pavle Simić, Dimitrije Petrović, Nadežda Petrović, Vasa Eškićević and others testify to how Serbian painters saw and experienced Italy, but also how the attitude towards Italian art contributed to shaping individual works of art.

The author of the exhibition is Stanislava Jovanović Mindić, curator of the Gallery of Matica Srpska in Novi Sad, and the Italian Institute for Culture in Belgrade, DDOR Insurance and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia helped to realize the project.